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Russia said on Sunday it had repelled a “massive” Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow and 14 regional energy and fuel plants, one of the largest assaults since the start of the two-and-a-half-year conflict.
Ukraine has repeatedly sent drones to attack Russian energy infrastructure in recent months in retaliation for Moscow’s missile attacks since the Kremlin first sent troops into the country in February 2022. The missile attacks severely damaged Ukraine’s own energy grid.
“It is completely reasonable for Ukrainians to respond to Russian terrorism by all necessary means,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Facebook.
The Russian Defense Ministry said a total of 158 drones were launched in the latest round of attacks, most of which were shot down in the Kursk, Bryansk, Voronezh and Belgorod regions bordering Ukraine.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 10 drones were targeting various areas in and around the capital.
He said one of the explosions caused a fire at an oil refinery in the capital’s downtown area, and a coal-fired power plant near the city was also reportedly targeted.
The attack came just days after Russia launched more than 200 drones and missiles at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in one of the largest such strikes to date.
Nearly a month after the Ukrainian offensive began in Russia’s Kursk region, Russian forces continue their slow but steady advance in eastern Ukraine, with Ukrainian troops crossing the border and occupying Russian territory.
Sobyanin said on Sunday morning that one of the downed drones had struck a “technical building” at the Moscow refinery, owned by Gazprom, in the Kapotinya region southeast of Moscow.
The mayor later said that “the fire at the refinery has been partially contained and there is no threat to personnel or plant operations.”
In the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, five drones struck the area of the Konakovo power plant and caused a fire that was quickly extinguished, according to the region’s governor, Igor Rudenia.
– ‘Most massive’ attack –
Mikhail Shuvalov, a local official in Moscow Oblast, said in a telegram that three drones also attempted to attack the Kashira coal-fired power station, but “no casualties or property damage occurred, and there was no fire at the power station.”
Russian military blogger Rebar, who has more than 1.3 million followers, wrote that “this night attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces was the largest since the start of the 2022 special military operation.”
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the city of Belgorod and the surrounding region, said Ukrainians launched another attack on Sunday afternoon, injuring 11 people, including two children, and causing extensive damage to apartment buildings and houses.
In the Donetsk region, where Russia is advancing toward the city of Pokrovsk, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Sersky, wrote on Facebook that the “situation in the main direction of the enemy’s offensive is difficult.”
Donetsk Oblast Governor Vadim Firashkin said that at least three people were killed and nine were injured in shelling near the town of Kurakhov in Donetsk Oblast.
Russia on Sunday claimed control of two new villages in the region: Ptyche near Pokrovsk and Vyyimka further northeast.
– ‘Intimidating Kharkov’ –
Russia fired missiles at Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv on Sunday afternoon, injuring 47 people, including seven children, according to emergency services.
Russian state police said the shooting at the shopping mall injured 21 people and the shooting at the sports center injured 18 people, including five children.
Emergency services said the attack caused “extensive damage and fire” and “people may be buried under the rubble.”
An AFP photographer saw rescuers with a dog working through the rubble at the heart of the destroyed sports palace, searching for survivors and carrying out one injured person on a stretcher.
Outside the shopping mall, there were burned cars, overturned building facades and a damaged gas pipe burning.
Prosecutors said Russia fired two Iskander-M ballistic missiles at a shopping mall, three at the Sports Palace and three more missiles hit near the sports complex.
Iran’s Energy Ministry said Russia attacked an energy facility in the city, but gave no details.
Kharkiv was also hit on Friday, with an airstrike killing seven people, including a teenage girl.
“Russia is once again terrorizing Kharkiv, attacking civilian infrastructure and the city itself,” Zelensky wrote on Facebook, calling for more weapons to defend against the attacks.
He called on world leaders to show “courage and give Ukraine everything it needs to defend itself.”
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